Diablo Rewritten
by Tarnished Libris
Summary: I recently beat Diablo one, and I wasn't happy with the ending, so like any good fanfic writer... I rewrote it!


_**Disclaimer; I am not a multi-millionaire company named after a severe snowstorm, thus I don't own it. Also, I don't own any of the words I use & only claim the order I put them in as my own. If my story isn't to your tastes, last I checked there were 640 other Diablo stories, (642 total, 2 being mine, one is this one.) & you can surely find something. I don't own the beach that BLIZZARD created, I just build my castles there, & they are mine. If you borrow from me, please cite. I don't appreciate people that claim my work as theirs, cuz that's not how it is. Mine is mine. LOL Rants & ramblings of a writer. START SCROLLING!**_

I drew my knife and pried the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead. His body crumbled away, leaving the small body of Prince Albrecht. As I held the bloody Soulstone in my hand, I caught a glimpse of the future that we would have if we continued our plan. I would become a corrupted Rogue, using my Sister's Graveyard to form an army of desecrated souls. The warrior and the sorcerer would become mere shadows of their former selves; Prince Aidan, the Warrior, would initially somewhat contain Diablo as a Dark Wanderer until he arrived in Hell. The Sorcerer, Brennan, would become a protector of an arcane sanctuary after he killed the great mage Horazon. I clutched the Soulstone tightly and felt the tears roll down my face. "Raven? What's wrong, what did you see?" asked Brennan. I quickly explained what would happen to us if Aidan smashed the stone in his skull like we'd been planning. Saying he was angry was an understatement. Brennan erupted with Chain Lightning and Aidan and I had to get out of the way before we were electrocuted. I cast a town portal as Aidan picked up his brother's body and we passed through. We tumbled out, graceless as ever, and all three of us bellowed "CAIN!" as we walked towards him. Prince Aidan leaped at him, grabbing his collar and hissing "You had better know of a place that we can destroy this Soulstone. My brother, father, mother and those I considered uncles such as Lachdanan are dead because of your silence! Blood Raven has lost her Sister's to your stupidity. I can't even begin to count the times I saw her cry because a staked or headless body was one of her Sister's. Brennan has lost clan-mates because you withheld lifesaving information Cain, what say you?" "They would have died anyway." He croaked. "MORE THAN WOULD HAVE IF YOU HADN'T WITHHELD IT!" Aidan pushed him away in disgust.

After giving Albrecht's body to Pepin, we walked to our house by the river that the villagers had given us. When Aidan opened the door, I cast my trap detection skill and found nothing, as usual. "Clear." I murmured. Only then, once I pronounced it clear, did we ever enter any building, dungeon, hallway or other place where traps could be set. We filed in to the one-room structure in habit, Brennan first, Aidan second, and me last. Collapsing gratefully to the floor, I pulled out my knife and arrows and began cleaning and sharpening them. About an hour of complete silence passed and then we heard a thunk on the door. Prince Aidan opened the door a little and poked his head out, ace at the ready. "Check the door Raven, there's a knife and scroll stuck to it." He called to me. I cast the detection part of the spell and called back "Clear." I stood up and jogged toward him, helping him by watching for anything or anyone that came too close. He finally worked the knife loose, picked up the scroll and we went back inside. I swiftly took the knife from Aidan's hand and began cleaning it for something to do. Brennan took the scroll and started reading it aloud:

_The Hellforge is a forge that has been shrouded in mystery ever since the angel Izual forged the ill-fated blade Azurewrath upon it. Many weapons have been forged upon it; some demonic, some angelic. There have been at least three instances in history where Soulstones were destroyed upon it. The Hellforge Hammer is the only item in existence that can destroy a Soulstone. To destroy a Soulstone on the Hellforge, place it in the hollow and hit it three times._

"Where is this Hellforge, or does it say?" asked Aidan. Brennan scanned the short scroll, looking for the information. "The River of Flame. In Hell." He answered. "How do we transport the Soulstone?" I questioned. "It says to use some sort of stasis charm, like Modus Stasi or Holy water rags or wrapped in pages of religious text." "Modus Stasi can wipe out four people of Brennan's skill and power like it's nothing, and holy water rags are hard to find anywhere outside of Kurast." Aidan said, shaking his head. "What is a Religious text that we can use, with out one of us becoming a priest first?" Brennan mused. "Zakarum is priests only, nobody outside the Rathma clans has access to their writings, the barbaric tribes is oral only. What else is there?" Aidan muttered "Amazon is also passed down orally, and the druid clans writings are freely given but not this far south." Brennan contributed. "Aranochites write their texts on strips of cloth, we could use that. Adria has some." I said excitedly.

We raced across the river, toward Adria's shack. Adria wasn't blind, she just acted like she was around certain people. (Cain and Pepin usually.) She did have a highly developed sixth sense like mine but she sensed people, how many, what their intentions were and their physical health, instead of traps. When we reached her shack, she looked toward the village and ushered us inside, closed and locked the door. She said nothing but merely threw strip after strip of the Aranochite writing at Brennan as she found them. "Blue text is what the gods say, red text is the prophets, green is the magicians text, and yellow is the common people's words." She told us as she continued to throw strips at us. "How much of this do you have, Adria?" "Three complete copies and four incompletes. It's a rather short text, only one thousand strips. If the Zakarum Bible was put in this size and length, it would take twenty thousand sixteen strips." It took us until dusk to sort the strips and we were about to start wrapping the Soulstone when there was a knock on the door. "It's Cain, he wants to know where you're at. What do I tell him?" Adria whispered. "You haven't seen us all day, we're probably in the dungeons under the church, and go away." I replied softly. She cast an illusion charm on us and went to answer Cain. "Hello Adria, have you seen Blood Raven, Aidan or Brennan? We're having a celebration in the town square for them if you want to come." Cain told her, cheerfulness rather forced. "I haven't seen them all day, Cain. They're probably in the chapel, praying, or in the dungeons walking among the corpses and blood, remembering life before the demons came. Now go away, I'm studying." Adria slammed the door in his face. "We'll finish this tomorrow, when it's daylight. For now, get to the chapel before Cain does." I picked up the Soulstone and she let us out a side door that we hadn't noticed.

We ran to the chapel and got there a good ten minutes before Cain did, which gave us plenty of time to begin prayer or meditation as we chose. Once he got there, Cain banged the floor a couple times with his staff. We 'awoke, startled', grabbed weapons and had them aimed at him before he could even blink. Relaxing slightly, I asked "What do you need, Cain?" "We're having a celebration for you in the town square." He answered. "For what? We haven't killed Diablo yet!" Aidan said, confused. "You have killed his physical body, which is the morale boost we needed." "No. All we killed was my younger brother. If we'd had a few paladins left, we could've saved Albrecht and your silence may not have mattered. You have no idea of the horrors we saw while we were down there. Blood Raven and I had to kill family members, her sister Heather and my brother. You will never feel the aching pain in your heart as you recall something they did, or didn't do. Do not count friends you do not have." Aidan snarled. I spoke up. "Leave us Cain. We'll come to the celebration, but all we'll be celebrating is that we survived another day. Because before long, your silence will have killed us and likely yourself as well." As Cain left, Brennan murmured "We should head to Lut Gholein tomorrow or the next day. A new trader came through earlier in the day, before we trapped Diablo, a man named Warriv. He's headed to Lut Gholein and I think we might be able to travel with him." "Yes, or we can buy horses from him." I replied, tracing a Zod rune in the dust, so the place couldn't be destroyed. "The pain of Tristram will never be forgotten by those who left with their sanity intact. For no one's soul is intact anymore. Kill or be killed." Aidan said, briefly taking me in his arms. "Yes, unfortunately." A voice I recognized said.

We turned, weapons once again at the ready. An angel was floating there in front of us. "At ease warriors, I am Tyrael. I seek to help you." Quickly forming a plan, I challenged "Tell us something that only Tyrael would know." Of course, that would cover a lot of things and he said as much. I nodded but still, there was one specific piece of information that the true Tyrael would give me. "You have the Justice Scales that your family has guarded for 21 generations." I nodded, pulling the Amulet out from underneath my Leather of Aut armor. Quickly, while it was still on my mind, I said "Don't use Marius, Tyrael. He's going to follow us but if everything goes wrong, he won't do as you say. He can't be trusted with his task. Use us instead." Tyrael was more than a little shocked that we knew of his plans. I hastily explained everything the Soulstone had shown me. Tyrael was surprised at this information and seemed to be verifying what he could tell us. At last he told us "If what you say is true, then I have been played for a fool for a long time. The Soulstones have been corrupted and must be destroyed." "We will destroy them to the best of our ability, this I swear." I said solemnly. "Do not fail. The whole world, Heaven, Sanctuary, Netherim, and Hell, depend on your success. I need to get back to guarding Baal. May the Light shine upon your path and the Darkness flee from thy sword." Tyrael said solemnly. "But then we have to chase them! I like my targets stationary!" Aidan playfully whined. Tyrael laughed as he faded away. Brennan and I smiled at each other. As we left the tiny chapel, I passed the Soulstone to Brennan.

Slowly walking to town, we could hear the music and gay laughter. Occasionally, I heard ghost sounds of Albrecht's tortured screams and Diablo's laughter. I grimaced, shaking my head, trying to dismiss the sounds and memories. Aidan noticed and squeezed my hand, asking "You hear it too?" As I nodded, Griswold came up behind us and told us "Buck up, lads and lady. Fighting messes with your mind, that's why only the brave and strong should do it. The weaker ones become Farnhams. I hope you don't go like him. He was a great man. Was." "Griswold, we have no intention of becoming like Farnham. He drinks Palomaberry; some of the strongest stuff out there until you get to undistilled. The hardest we intend to go is probably Arreat mead, maybe stronger." Aidan responded.

As the blacksmith moved off, Adria came into town. Gillian, ever the drama queen, screamed and 'fainted'. How she stands drunks like Farnham and sometime drunks like his twin brother Marius on an almost-daily basis and is scared of a witch, I don't know, but it ticked me off; I stalked up to Gillian, grabbed her hair and drug her to Adria. I pulled her up to Adria's face and told her "They said that eyes are windows to the soul. Look at Adria's." Gillian refused, so I yanked her head to look deep into the Witch's silver eyes. The whole town was looking at us, but I didn't care. Adria clicked her tongue and everything bad that Gillian had ever said about Adria came pouring out of her mouth. There was a rather lot, including an impassioned little speech that if could be proven true and sent to the right person, would get Adria killed. "Well, I have no doubt in my mind that she meant every word she said. I would like to sue for undue slander, my king, what sayeth thee?" Everyone held their breaths, waiting on Aidan to speak. "I deem thy case worthy. Fifteen gold peices will be paid to Adria," Gillian interrupted "I don't _have _fifteen gold peices!" "Twenty and a ten year apprenticeship to Adria." He said smoothly. The barmaid started to complain, but Aidan put a stop to that by asking "Need I make it thirty and fifteen?" Gillian screeched "No!" "Then you'll do everything that Adria asks of you and if you don't, a charm will appear on this bracelet and sting you every half-hour. You cannot take off the bracelet until your apprenticeship is over." Gillian's grand-dam laughed out loud. "What did I tell you, chile? You would find yourself under an undeserving enemy. She deserveth not to be your enemy." "SHUT UP! Shut up, you grateless old hag, shut up!" Gillian screamed. Adria muttered a spell under her breath and the young barmaid lost her voice. "Well, now that's out of the way, on with the party." I called out.

We went inside the Tavern of the Rising Sun, where we snagged a corner table. Garda came to us and asked "What'll ye have lads?" "Straight beer for the two of us," said Brennan, indicating himself and Aidan. "And bourbon for her." As Garda walked off, Marius staggered up. "Can a man, _hic_, si' wi' such fine, _hic,_ warriors, _hic, _as yourself?" "Sure Marius, come sit down." I said, after slipping under Brennan to sit by the wall, as far as possible from the drunken man. I pulled three small vials from a hidden pocket in my belt. Slipping one to Aidan and Brennan, I said "But, yeah of course, the Yarda counteracts the poison, so we could stand it longer." I winked. The vials were marked Yarda but it was sobriety potion. The warrior and sorcerer nodded. "It's been a long time, hasn't it Blood Raven? The people change, they come and go, they act like arrogant arses and expect to be treated with reverence and when you don't, they get all puffed up and tantrumized. They seem to think that written word can substitute and give you the same knowledge that fighting for your life can and they say they understand when they've never been here, done that, destroyed it and survived." Garda brought out drinks and handed us a little slip of parchment. "Drinks on the house, rest of the night. Cain might try something, be wary." I read it and growled. After the other two read it, we each called a sliver of fire to our fingers and burnt the paper. Marius eventually moved off and I finally answered Brennan's question. "Yeah, we started on what, the sixteenth of April, and three days later we were fighting the Butcher." "And now it's a week till Midsummer's Eve. We were fighting for so long. And we're just getting started again." answered Aidan. "Started on what?" Cain asked. "When we killed Albrecht, Diablo sent a signal to his brothers,"

As Aidan explained stuff, I yanked out my knife and took off the Justice Scales. I set the miniture scales on the table and laid the knife beside it. Cain gasped at the ancient artefact. "Those are the Horadric scales! Tal Rasha had them last. How did you get ahold of it?" "Oh well, you see, there was this issue of Tal Rasha taking his armor and things with him 'cos Baal could destroy it and they didn't want that. So each member got one thing. My ancestor happened to get the Justice Scales, and my family has kept them ever since. Got a problem?" "Who deserves them?" He asked. "Well, let's find out." I said, really enjoying this. I slashed my finger and dripped blood on one of the bowls, I forget the correct term for them. Cain unwillingly did the same on the other side. The scales tipped my way. Cain left immediately afterward. "New question." I slashed Aidan and Brennan's fingers and dripped their blood on my side. "Is Cain justified in what ever he has planned for us?" Brennan asked. Again, the scales tipped our way. "I take that as a no." I swallowed the last of my bourbon, picked up the amulet and walked outside. I was going on a carving spree. I was going to make each building indestructible. I walked around, carving Zod runes into buildings near the grass lines, so they couldn't be seen easily.

I sent off a messenger arrow to Brennan and Aidan. It told them to meet me at Warriv's caravan so we could buy horses. They came after five minutes and we knocked on Warriv's wagon door. He let us into the Gypsy style wagon and asked us "So, what do you need?" "We need three of your fastest horses and we'll pay good cash for them." I said, making sure there were no unwanted listeners. "Four hundred apiece." "Four-fifty." Warriv countered. "Four twenty-five." Aidan told him. "Deal." Walking outside, I picked out a black stallion I liked. "You don't want Thunder, miss. He bucks off everyone." "Try me." I told him stubbornly. I walked up slowly to the horse, patting him and talking low. When he'd gotten used to me enough, I leaped up on his back. He did buck but after a while it became clear to Thunder that I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. When he quit bucking, I told him soothingly "Now, see, was that so bad?" He tossed his head and snorted. Warriv called "Will you be wanting a saddle, miss?" "No, I don't think so. Pick out your horses, boys." Brennan picked out a chestnut roan mare named Cinnamon, Aidan got a white stallion called Moonlight and a pack horse named Mule. I handed Warriv the gold. We rode to the other side of Adria's shack and tethered the horses there. Then we quietly snuck back to the house by the river and got everything that we needed out and on our horses. We had a few more drinks and then we hit the sack. Brennan and I woke up roughly at the same time; me from combat-induced nightmares, him from me kicking his pallet. He woke me up properly, calmed me down and then held me close to him for awhile. When I finally calmed down enough to sleep, Brennan laid down beside me and held me through the rest of the night.

The next morning, before anyone else was up, Brennan and I stole to Adria's shack, where we found Aidan checking through the sorted strips from the night before. Brennan produced the Soulstone from his robes and we commenced to wrap the Soulstone. Just as we hid the Soulstone in Aidan's saddlebags, Cain walked up and asked "Prince Aidan, where do you think you're going?" Aidan glared at Cain as he mounted, holding the reins in one hand. "I wasn't aware that a Prince's movements were any business of yours, Cain. Where I'm going, Blood Raven Brennan, and Marius will be adequate protection." We clip-clopped into town, and Aidan stood up in his stirrups. "My good people, my friends and I have heard news of more trouble in the east, and we are going to see if the rumors are true. If you see any demons, or hear tell of, I want you to pack your food, your clothes, your valuables and move to Kingsport. I will not have any more of my subjects killed if I can help it." Here Griswold interrupted. "My lord Aidan, who will command us?" "Why, Griswold, I was hoping it would be you, since you have the most battle experience, and are good at keeping your head while everyone else has lost theirs." Griswold sank to one knee and murmured "Thank you my prince." "For now, we say goodbye to the people of Tristram." "Godspeed, Prince Aidan!" Adria shouted. He dismounted, walked up to Adria, swept her up in a kiss and remounted. "Thank you, my love." He told her quietly. Aidan clipped forward. Brennan spoke for the first time. "That could have been you he was saying it to, Gillian, had you not said all those things about Adria. If he'd still said it to her, _I _might have said it to you, but not since you slandered my cousin so rudely yesterday." I ignored Gillian and focused on Wirt. "Since your accident, I've been thinking about you a rather lot, young man. You remember how once you asked me why there were so many demons without their skin?" Wirt nodded. I threw a small bag at him; he caught it and looked inside. "Holy Christ alive! You made this?" "Pull it out and show us boy, we wanna know what it is too!" called Griswold. Wirt pulled out the demon-skin armor I'd made him. "There's another bag in there. You'll know who it belongs to." Wirt pulled out the other bag, peeked inside, and retched. He delivered it at arms-length to Pepin. "Demon organs?" Pepin asked. I nodded. "Useful stuff, that is." I smiled and rode off toward Aidan, Brennan and Lut Gholein. Marius climbed on the packhorse and rode after me.


End file.
